Montreal daily turns non-profit in Net era

THE Montreal daily La Presse, after ending its 134-year-old print edition and going digital, said on Tuesday it will become a non-profit entity reliant on donations and government support.

In doing so, Canada’s leading French-language newspaper declared the forprofit business model in the media sector a failure, after decades of plummeting subscriptions and advertising revenues.

The newspaper will also severe ties with the powerful Desmarais family, which has interests in oil company Total and buildings material maker LafargeHolcim.

The family will provide a parting donation of C$50 million (US$42 million) to the newspaper to help it find its new footing.

To be viable, La Presse is also counting on a boost from government tax incentives on “philanthropic concepts, in addition to direct aid,” the paper said.

Several United States and European newspapers are set up as non-profits, with backing from wealthy foundations and donors bankrolling investigative and public interest journalism.

But in Canada, La Presse is the first major newspaper to adopt this template.

Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly noted that the government earmarked C$50 million in its last budget to support local journalism. “We said in the 2018 budget that we are prepared to explore new models for media, including allowing philanthropic donations,” she said.

La Presse launched a tablet edition in the spring of 2013, and on January 1 stopped publishing its print edition for the first time since 1884.